This is some nice pixel art, huh? Maybe it could look a little nicer, but for someone who never does pixel art, I'd say it's not too bad. My brother hasn't played Silksong in forever... I should ask him to play it during the summer.
You want to know something else about this art that I think is pretty cool?
It's a Minecraft map.
I freakin' built this in Minecraft.
Minecraft.
Anyways, this took me around 24 hours, possibly more, so I'm going to rant for a bit because this was harder and took longer than I thought it would. You don't have to listen to me, but I think I need this.
Not only did I have to use my laptop's trackpad the entire time, but the /fill command mostly worked for just the bell beast's head because when I designed the art, I used the dithering brush way too much, so there was a lot of switching blocks.
Minecraft maps are 128*128 pixels. At their smallest size, each block equals a pixel. That is 16,384 blocks. Since I made a base that I then used the staircase method on top of, that's almost twice as many blocks. Yes, the staircase method was necessary to get the right colors. I don't think it's unrealistic to say this might have been 30,000 blocks.
I realize that I'm really complaining about nothing in particular, and some people do lots of map art that is way better than this. I just wasn't prepared for how long it would take me. I started this on March 28th and finished on April 4th, and I estimate that it took about 24 hours.
I don't like playing video games that much, and I think the only reason I stuck to this was a sort of sunk cost fallacy thing. I'd already spent so much time on it that it really bothered me not to finish it, even if I should have worked on homework and stuff, or even other art instead. It doesn't help that making the reference art was so quick. I think I gave myself unrealistic expectations.
Anyways, here are some more pictures of my reference art, the different versions of the maps, the bats that started spawning (I did do this in Creative Peaceful mode so mobs wouldn't bother me too much) and other miscellaneous things.
Blocks I used:
For Bell Beast's body- light blue and blue terracotta, clay, and quartz
For Bell Beast and Hornet's heads- quartz blocks and mushroom stems
For Bell Beast's legs- cyan terracotta, light gray wool, dark gray wool and stone
For Hornet's cloak- red terracotta, crimson hyphae, and netherrack
For the ground- black, brown, gray and light gray terracotta
For outlines- black wool
oh, also scaffolding was useful even though it's not part of the art itself
And apparently I messed up the entirety of the light blue terracotta sections so that's why the shadows on the bell beast's body are too dark. Whoops.
Yep, this is the Hop-bush Leaf Beetle (Callidemum hypochalceum) and it's from Australia! It feeds off hop bushes from the Dodonaea genus. That's literally all I know about it.
Basically I was just doing some studies and liked how this one turned out, plus my profile picture was due for a change and I don't feel like drawing hummingbirds right now. I love iridescence, and beetles are a great source if you want iridescence that both does and doesn't make sense. I think I'm starting to understand it a bit better though.
Pay no mind to how blurry it is, this took up less than an eighth of the page of doodles it's a part of and is meant to be smaller.
This is my 100th post, I wanted to do something special and I liked this idea. It was not originally going to be this long. (20 pages! Wow!)
Because this took me half a month to create, I think I'll probably do a little "making of" post just to discuss how the end result differed from my original plans for this comic. I wish I could say I have a backlog of art to post, but I don't, and this comic might have given me burnout.
Ughhhh, my stupid brain has been telling me non-stop how "talentless" I am and how all of my drawings look terrible and that made making this comic an uphill battle. But I did it, and I hope that eventually I can feel proud of it. In the meantime, I think I need to do a couple of art tutorials so my brain actually acknowledges that I've been improving.
(Update: took a break between page 10 and 11 which improved my mental state, I still feel it's important to acknowledge that time of low self esteem and how I pushed through it. Also, I learned what a pen stabilizer was on page 12.)
I deserve a small ramble about this comic, right? Actually, it's pretty much as long as the comic itself, so you have been warned.
Yeah, so, this was inspired by my Susie vs. Lancer comic. In that, Susie does not admit her vulnerability to herself in time and that leads to her making a mistake she regrets. I wanted to show Asriel showing false vulnerability (my headcanon of him being an actor coming into play here) and creating a betrayal similar to Susie's, only this one was on purpose.
"But Beryll," I hear you say, "doesn't Asriel think Frisk is Chara? Why on earth would Asriel kill his best friend?" Well, besides the fact that a) Asriel is both a god of hyperdeath and a LV 9999 maniac b) he's already killed Frisk dozens of times in this battle alone and c) the image of black silhouettes on a red background with a glowing white sword is too cool to pass up, I have a little interaction I couldn't fit in the comic that should explain things.
That's my way of reconciling the whole "I thought you were Chara" thing when Chara and Frisk do not physically look alike at all. Remember, Flowey's genocide dialogue in the Ruins says, "I have a plan to become all powerful. Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul." Meaning that he knows this human physically is not Chara come back to life, but something in their mannerisms or something is so similar to Chara that Flowey convinces himself that they are. And in this comic, Asriel was so desperate for Chara to remember him that he takes Frisk's soul for himself, in the hopes that when they are reunited Chara will come back as well. (And he had to get up close and personal because of the soul's annoying tendency to crack before he can take it, also, glowing white sword. That's why I don't show the heart as broken on page 4, even though that would give the off the "dead" vibes more clearly.)
And now we come to the part where he says, "Hey, remember that time you wanted to kill all of those humans? Want to try again?" I think Flowey has been holding on to the whole "kill or be killed" mentality because he thinks it was his fault that he and Chara died. He fears being weak and being a coward, which is why he became a sadistic LV 9999 psychopath. Again, the whole acting headcanon thing that I rambled about in a different post.
Asriel's last memories of being with Chara are of feeling Chara's anger towards the humans, and when they finally reunite, he can't accept that, as a ghost, Chara learned to let go of that anger, having realized their own mistakes and realizing that it was their anger that got them into trouble. But Asriel has been holding on to that anger that wasn't even his own, all because he believes that it was his fault that they both died, since he fought against that anger.
So yeah, Asriel and Flowey's strongest emotions are actually guilt. Flowey's got a bit of survivor's guilt because he was brought back, albeit as a flower. But most of the guilt comes from convincing himself that it was his fault he and Chara died. That guilt causes him to reject all of the positive emotions that come his way and hold on to the hurt for so long that he hardly realizes it's there, causing that empty feeling that he thinks is a lack of emotions. But if he ever managed to actually let go of his guilt, he would realize that he actually can feel emotions. I have never believed that soulless = emotionless, given the way Flowey acts.
I just want to say, when Asriel resets in this comic, I'm definitely imagining a thing like when Majora's Mask Link plays the Song of Time, where all of the souls are leaving him like Link's items leave as he falls through the void, finally waking up as Flowey. Also, from a mechanics standpoint, Asriel has access to several save files when he's got Frisk's soul. He can reset to the moments after he got Frisk's soul, to when Frisk took away his control over resets, and to when he was first brought back as Flowey. He can't go further back than that because he can't go back to a time he didn't have that power. The only reason he can go back further than the moment he stole Frisk's soul is because of the enormous amounts of determination from all of the souls he has, both monster and human.
Okay, now I want to talk about the ending of the comic. All sweet and nice because Flowey's finally learning to let go of some of the things that made him evil and mean, right? I'm writing this ramble halfway through drawing the comic, so I'm assuming how that ends. (Also, if it's not clear, Frisk has forgotten their entire time in the Underground before. To them, this is the first time they've been down here.)
Well, that leads me to wonder, how will Flowey act since he has decided to be nice and stuff? Honestly, I don't know how the boss battles would go, but I think he and Frisk would develop a genuine friendship. He would hang around places he's pretty sure have save points, maybe give some tips and share a joke or two. Basically, imagine something like what he does for Clover in Undertale Yellow.
But, because we can't have happy Flowey, let's give him a new source of guilt. Now, Flowey lives in fear of Frisk finding out what he did, how he preyed on their sympathy just so he could kill them and steal their soul. He's been acting nice now, and enjoying their friendship, but he can't convince himself to fully commit to it (acting headcanon mention three) because he's afraid he might lose that friendship. Which is why, when Frisk chooses to hug and forgive Asriel, he refuses both, since he remembers what happened last time they hugged (on page 4) and he doesn't feel he deserves forgiveness when they don't even remember the truly horrible things he did. (Again, I'm not completely sure what the boss battles would have been like.) <Actually, I've taken a few days since writing this ramble and have figured it out but will discuss it in a future post.
But Frisk is a determined kid, and after they watch the sunset with everybody (and decide to live with Toriel of course) they go all the way back to the Ruins where this happens.
I hope you are noticing the parallels between Frisk and Chara that help defend Flowey/Asriel's confusion, because I worked hard on integrating that. They are very much alike.
So, that's the end of my ramble. I guess a long comic needs a long ramble, huh? Despite my brain's attempts to convince me otherwise, I actually really enjoyed making this comic. If you did read this whole thing, good for you! I'm not the best at explaining these things in an understandable manner, so I know it might have been hard to read.
Also, January 16th is/was Appreciate a Dragon Day. So here's Douglas, who guards my things while I do art. (I did 6 pages today, so Douglas got plenty of work in.)
There's just something lovely about a quiet forest with a stream or babbling brook. I have been trying for ages to draw a piece of environment art that fits this music, and I think this really works. I'm a sucker for dark blues and purples. My brother and I both agreed that some sound effects would really tie the music and art together.
This is the longest piece of music I've composed so far, being almost 3 minutes. I think it's really pretty myself. The more I learn about music, the harder it is to compose, if I'm being honest. Learning about things like layering and counterpoint but not knowing how to implement them can be frustrating sometimes. Luckily, this piece was the perfect mix of deliberate choices and random inspiration, and even a month later I still like listening to it.
I have not been keeping up with my New Year's resolution of getting better at drawing backgrounds, however, I am technically better than I was at the beginning of the year. I just haven't improved as much as I could have. To be fair, I've been dividing my attention, and I think (or hope) that I've improved in some other artistic areas as well. Though apparently composition is not one of those things. This forest art could be a lot better, but it could also be a lot worse. I'll take the win.
April 8th is Draw a Picture of a Bird Day! I've been trying to figure out how to do digital watercolor, and one thing I always paint is birds. This doesn't quite have the watercolor look I would like, but practice makes progress. It also doesn't help that owls are just really hard to draw. (I just realized the eyes are a bit off, but liquify is really hard to use in Krita.)
Okay, I have a new favorite bird, the Purple-throated Mountain Gem. Just look at those colors! Absolutely gorgeous! I think I'll make this my new profile picture.
Gonna be honest, this is heavily referenced from a picture on eBird. I usually do my best to use multiple references or use my own pictures, but lighting and iridescence are not easy to draw from imagination. I wish I could take my own reference pictures of this beautiful bird but that's not really feasible.
First time drawing Martlet. I needed a break both from digital art and the indoors, so I visited a nearby park with my sketchbook. It was a bit windy outside, so my hands were cold as I drew, but it was so worth it to go out, sit on the grass, feel the wind... man, I love nature.
Why. Have I not. Used this stuff before? I got a big container of clay for my birthday last year, never used it because I didn't know the best way to heat it up, and it's amazing!
This is my first time working with Monster Clay (I've used regular clay before, the type you fire in a kiln) and it's pretty great! It's definitely a lot harder to smooth things out when you can't just spritz it with water, but it also holds details a lot better than regular clay (I should say easier, I have made some pretty detailed things, the details just tend to wash away if you use water to help smooth your sculpture).
Sans was a great choice for a first project, since he's made with nice big, simple shapes. I had a lot of fun doing the wrinkles and folds in his clothing, but his face was so hard. It's probably still not quite right, but you should have seen some of my earlier tries. Not my best work. Anyways, I think it would be fun to maybe scan and 3D print him and add a bit of paint. I'm not willing to ruin my clay with color.
There's a little video and some process type pictures under the cut.
Sorry, that's a lot of low quality pictures. Hopefully you get the gist. Also, here are the "tools" I used to make this sculpture since I don't know where my actual tools are.
I'm limiting myself to five. I don't have any Undertale OCs, I've just got some aesthetic au versions of existing characters (Steamtale Gaster is my favorite) but I've got lots of D&D style characters. I'm a big fantasy fan, and making fantasy OCs gives me the chance to create fantasy worlds at the same time.
Tamal is my D&D bard (with potential to become a bardlock). His dad sacrificed him to eldritch beings a while back, so he doesn't have a face, and he wears his skull mask at all times. However, he does like music and singing, even if he can get a bit tongue tied in front of people. This is the character I will be playing if I can get over my social anxiety enough to join a D&D group.
This is technically two characters combined into one, also known as a 3/2 character. This is my character design practice character, because I have a lot of trouble making my OCs visually interesting, so she's going to (hopefully) look a lot different later on. The basic story idea is that the girl is sick of being sheltered because she's a noble, so she runs away from home in the hopes of becoming a soldier/knight. Somehow she finds a magical sword who can talk, but he doesn't want to fight. He wants to study to become a wizard. Eventually he agrees to teach her to fight so he doesn't get left out in the middle of nowhere, but their conflicting interests lead to amusing shenanigans.
This is the Shakespeare therapy bot, also known as Will, Willy, Bill, Henry, or Romeo, depending on who you ask. It used to be a repair bot on a starship, but one day it started trembling uncontrollably for an unknown reason. The crew started off by just cushioning the bot to stop it from rattling, but eventually they dressed it up like a Shakespeare character because they needed something to occupy their time. It is not intelligent (it's about as smart as a parrot or a dog) but it can communicate using phrases from Shakespeare sonnets and plays. The captain doesn't like the bot or the attachment the crew has to it, but he's got debilitating anxiety/depression, and eventually it becomes his emotional support animal except it's a robot.
The Goblin King is a character I made purely to kill off in a comic. Then I gave him a backstory and now I feel bad about it (and I've been procrastinating ever since). Anyways, there's this prophecy that the person who kills him will be the hero who saves the land, and you know, he doesn't want to die, but he also wants his daughter to grow up in a world that is safe, so when the hero does come, it's kind of bittersweet. Also, the goblin with the birthmark and earring is his daughter grown up, she did not like losing her dad. I made him look too youthful, I was trying so hard to make him look small and cute. His battle music sounds good so far though.
Oh my gosh, this guy, this guy is hilarious. I love him so much! Basically I was drawing a bunch of random characters and I drew a shy skeleton in a wizard's outfit. My dad saw it and said it looked like a necromancer, and my brother suggested giving him a rose because he was a nec-romance-r. So I did, and thought, "Hang on, I can take this one step further!"
So meet the Neck-romancer, a former vampire who was turned into a skeleton due to a misunderstanding. See, he advertised his services as a vampire date-for-hire by calling himself the "Neck-romancer," but a couple of people didn't get the joke and hired him to help with a ritual, thinking he was an actual necromancer. Since he didn't actually know anything about necromancy, he bungled it all up and was turned into a skeleton. (No idea what happened to the other guys) Thankfully, vampires are resilient creatures and he remained able to live life as normal, albeit as a skeleton. He lost a lot of his vampire powers too, though now he can be in the sunlight without turning to ash, so that's something.
Now he's a merchant who sells wares from his wagon. I plan to have him appear to sell magical items to the Undertale gang in my Undertale plays D&D campaign, but he also exists in the goblin king's universe because he's way too awesome to use just once. He's a huge fan of puns and wordplay and still calls himself "the Neck-romancer," even though him being a skeleton in wizard robes leads to even more misunderstandings. I don't have a good reason for why he started wearing the robes, but I do know they're comfortable.
Anyways, those are some of my OCs! Thank you for your question, it was really nice to have an excuse to ramble about them! Sorry if it was a bit long, I couldn't choose just one though.
